


How could you?

by Tangerine_Catnip



Series: The Best and Worst Intentions [2]
Category: Borderlands (Video Games)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Black Comedy, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Mind Rape, Multi, Parent/Child Incest, Psychological Horror, Sexual Coercion, Sexual Violence, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-21
Updated: 2017-03-21
Packaged: 2018-10-08 17:37:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,122
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10392240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tangerine_Catnip/pseuds/Tangerine_Catnip
Summary: Rhys never wanted to hurt Angel. Every decision he made was weighed solely on what would cause her the least pain. What good would it have done to tell her about the Jack AI? Even if he was starting to have doubts that he'd managed to completely free himself from Jack's influence.Then, when she asked him to go out with her, he couldn't refuse and pour cold water over her first attempt to develop a romantic relationship. He figured he'd just find a way to let her down easy before it went too far. He didn't.Each step had been made with the best of intentions, but good intentions only get you so far on Pandora.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just a reminder, this second part is wildly different in tone.

Rhys had never actually attended an Atlas Military graduation ceremony before. He'd never been all that interested in pomp and circumstance, although he understood it's importance for boosting morale and strengthening relationships. That's why he hired people who knew how to apply it to the best effect.

Rhys had almost talked himself out of going. None of the other recruits would have friends or family present and having the big boss around might throw off the friendly atmosphere. But when Angel tracked him down a week before and asked him in person, Rhys couldn't turn her down.

Norfolk wasn't overly pleased about having to work him into the proceedings, so they settled on having him shake the hand of each recruit after they received their rank badge.

As was tradition, the whole of Calypso's Scorn had come out to welcome their newest members. Just under two hundred soldiers sat in perfectly straight rows on the grass, exploding into thunderous applause in the pause after Norfolk called each recruit by name.

There were only ten other recruits in Angel's class. Only soldiers who were going to serve on Pandora were trained on-planet, and each of the three resident battalions ran separate training programs.

"Grayson!"

The named recruit stepped out of the line and stopped in front of Norfolk. He firmly planted both feet and gave her a flawless salute. Norfolk nodded and reached out to attach a silver Atlas pin to his lapel.

"Welcome to the team, soldier."

Norfolk passed him his badge. It had the Atlas logo embossed in silver thread at the top and a single white stripe underneath. He turned and waved at the crowd, who answered him with joyous whoops and another wave of applause. He passed Rhys on his way back, and they shook hands.

"Thanks for giving me this opportunity, sir. I won't let you down."

Rhys gave the man his best corporate smile, though most of his attention was fixed over his shoulder at the rest of the recruits. All of them had been called besides-

"Angel!"

Rhys straightened up, his smile widening as a girl with dark hair and blue eyes moved from her place at the end of the line.

Her hair had grown out a lot in the last few months, enough to hide her implants but still half an inch shy of touching her ear. She had also cut off her ponytail, drastically shortening the hair in the back while keeping her dramatic side-swept bangs.

The reaction from the rest of her battalion was cacophonous. Rhys was hardly surprised, from the gossip he had overheard, most of the battalion had taken the news that a siren would be joining their ranks as if a goddess had stepped down from the clouds and bestowed her blessing on them.

Norfolk waited for the racket to calm down, but after five full minutes had passed without a lull, she took the training whistle from her belt and blew it so loud that Rhys had to slam his hands over his ears.

Angel had remained firmly in position while this was going on, but she was blushing so hard you'd think a child had coloured in her cheeks with a pink crayon.

"Are you all done!" Norfolk shouted, planting on hand on her hips.

"Yes, ma'am!" Came the reply, amplified tenfold by how many voices spoke in unison.

"Alright then. -Angel, after conducting a thorough consultation with Colonel Whitehouse, as well as several key members of our battalion, it's been decided that you will receive the elevated rank of corporal, and that I will be handling the further training you'll need to fulfil your role."

Angel opened her mouth, but her reply was lost under another wave of cheers from the peanut gallery and an answering blast from Norfolk's whistle.

Before she could be interrupted again, Norfolk pocketed the whistle, attached Angel's pin, and thrust a badge with three sideways stripes into her hands. Angel saluted her, clutching the badge tight to her chest.

Rhys extended a hand as Angel approached him. She ignored it completely and leapt into his arms instead.

"Alright you gigantic pains in my ass," Norfolk yelled over yet another wave of cheers, "dismissed!"

The organised group melted into a mob of people. The rest of Angel's class came over, and Rhys suddenly found himself at the centre of a group hug. Angel laughed and tried nudging them off.

"Guys! Give poor Rhys some space, he's your boss y'know!"

Angel let go of Rhys and wriggled out from under the others, but the rest of the battalion was hovering nearby, she was going to have a very full night receiving congratulations and rubbing elbows.

"Rhys, we're going to meet at the bar later tonight to have some drinks. You should come," Angel said, squeezing his left hand in both of hers.

"Are you sure? I'd hate to get in the middle of your team bonding."

"Ha! most of these guys get dead-ass drunk too quick to be good compony. -Shut up Tobias, yes you do!- Just show up around nine, and I'll be all yours."

Rhys nodded and broke away from Angel, backing up quickly to avoid getting crushed by the wave of people flocking around her.

It was stunning, really. Two months in and Angel had managed to integrate herself into her new family seamlessly and win the admiration of so many of her peers. When they flocked around her, it almost looked like she was being worshipped.

' _It's always been like that. My baby would make Hellen of Troy look like a shrivelled old hag.'_

Rhys grit his teeth. These were his thoughts, and he had control over them. This was just left over trauma from his encounter with Handsome Jack. There was nothing out of place in his subsystems, and he had Atlas' best cybernetic technicians to back him up on it.

He tried to distract himself by focusing on Angel. She was standing in a large circle with the others, taking it in turns to talk to everyone.

' _She can't help herself. At first, the Guardian Angel persona was just a ruse to get the vault open, but the longer she kept it up, the more she got used to being revered by the bandits of Pandora. The moment she started to think of herself as their goddess was when I started losing her.'_

"No. I'm just imagining this. I don't know that," Rhys muttered under his breath.

' _Keep telling yourself that, Pumpkin.'_

"Shut up."

A tap came on Rhys' shoulder, and he swivelled around to see a bemused looking Norfolk standing behind him.

"Hey skipper, if you're done talking to yourself, there's a few things I was hoping to go over with you."

"O-oh, sure," Rhys stammered. Then after a pause added, "it's a motivation exercise, by the way. Just… talking myself up."

Norfolk gave Rhys about the same look Athena had given him when he'd tried that excuse on her.

* * *

 

The Atlas base on Pandora had quite a few recreation facilities. There was a gym, a library, a spa, a pool, two restaurants to offer an alternative to the cafeteria, and a pub style bar.

The bar was a huge favourite among the military officers, though they were required to submit their services numbers while ordering drinks to help highlight possible substance abuse before it became a problem.

Rhys rarely visited, since most of his social drinking happened at corporate parties off-planet… and also because he didn't really know any of his coworkers well enough to be invited out.

The place was packed tonight, mostly with members of calypso's scorn who were taking the graduation as an excuse to party, even though only a small handful had something to celebrate. Rhys wove his way through the crowd, occasionally stopping when someone recognised him and wanted to use the opportunity to endear themselves to the man upstairs.

Eventually, he found Angel sitting with her cohorts at a booth near the back. The table was piled high with beer bottles, and most of the new privates were out cold.

Angel beamed when she saw Rhys, and she waved him over.

"See, what did I tell you?" She said with a grin, gesturing to her companions. "They're kinda like dogs really, give them a tummy rub and- boom, off to sleep." She turned to the man beside her and patted him on the top of his head, then shifted closer to elbow him in the stomach.

"Tobias, move! Rhys needs your seat."

"I don't wanna."

"Come on, he technically signs your paycheque, the least you can do is nap by the bar for a bit.

"Ughhhh fine," Tobias muttered, hauling himself up and vacating the spot next to Angel.

"You didn't have to do that…" Rhys murmured as she took the seat.

"Don't worry, He's a big boy. You should've seen when he took a battering ram to the chest in training. He was back up and walking four hours later."

Angel turned sideways in her seat, so her shoulders were up against the wall, then brought her legs up and rested them across Rhys' lap.

"Now let's get you something to drink before you realise how tipsy I am."

Rhys was halfway through his fourth beer when he checked his watch and realised he had been sitting and talking to Angel for nearly two hours.

It hardly felt like time had passed at all, but all the other recruits had shuffled off, and the bar had emptied out. Rhys was sure that the place should be closing right around now. Maybe whoever was in charge was reluctant to tell the CEO to leave?

"-So then, Norfolk screams "Zeus' floppy dong, recruits, what the actual fuck!" Turns on her heal, and just walks out."

Rhys snorted, nearly choking on his sip of beer.

"Stella was so embarrassed she tried chasing after the LC! The rest of us had to grab her arms to stop her from making it worse."

"I feel kind of bad for her. She didn't get kicked out, right?"

"Nha, Norfolk has a good sense of humour. I mean she has to, the way I've seen her talk to you."

"That's one way to put it," Rhys said with a shrug.

Angel shifted around, readjusting her position until she was comfortable again. Rhys grit his teeth, he wasn't sure why Angel had decided to use him as a leg rest, but her thighs brushing against the front of his pants was having an effect that a sober Rhys would've had a few concerns about.

"Hey, Rhys," Angel whispered.

Her voice was so quiet that Rhys had to lean over the booth seat to hear her. Angel noticed the movement, and she pulled herself closer as well, scooting over and bending her knees.

"Thanks again. I know you weren't totally on-board with me becoming a soldier, but you let me try it anyway."

Angel smiled, and Rhys felt his stomach flip. He'd never seen her smile so genuinely before… not unless you counted the picture on Jack's desk.

"All my life I've wanted a big happy family, and now I've finally got one," Angel murmured.

Rhys shrugged his shoulders and turned his face away from her to hide the blush coming on.

"Don't thank me. You're the one who made all this happen. All I did was put you in front of Norfolk and stand around looking stupid."

"You didn't look stupid," Angel snapped. She reached up to rest her fingers against Rhys' cheek. She shifted her body again, taking the small step from being pressed up against Rhys, to sitting in his lap.

Rhys blinked up at her, vaguely realising that he was now at about eye level with her chest. He hadn't really noticed before, but the tank top she was wearing was kind of low-cut. From this close he could see the top of her lavender bra underneath.

"People here really look up to you. They're proud to be part of the new Atlas. You may not run the biggest corporation or even the most profitable, or competitive, but you're the only one who really cares about your employees."

"Angel?" Rhys asked. The alcohol had slowed his reaction time, and he was just starting to realise that he had let her get way too close.

Angel's bright blue eyes met his. The lenses in his echo eye focused on her pupils and some text popped up, pointing out that they were unusually dilated for the current light level. Further information scrolled past, reporting her elevated heart rate and unusually warm skin temperature.

Rhys chased away the popups with a thought. Only for it to come back a second later to warn him that his heart rate was veering way out of normal parameters.

Angel wrapped her arms around his shoulders and twisted her fingers into his hair. She hesitated, and for a moment Rhys thought this was as far as she would go. She had been imprisoned for her entire life, and this was a completely new experience for her. Probably one that she wasn't ready for after only two months of freedom.

"Angel-"

The sound of her name snapped her out of her trance, and Angel pressed her lips down against Rhys', muffling his gasp. She held him like he was the only thing stopping her from drowning. Pure instinct carrying her as she moved her lips over his.

Rhys found her shoulders and pushed her off. Even in his half-drunken state, he realised that this was wrong on so many levels.

Angel blinked at him, but her shock was quickly replaced by disappointment. The look on her face conveyed her emotions so completely that Rhys could swear he heard her heart shatter.

She slipped out of his lap and out of the booth, grabbing the table for support.

With a jolt, Rhys realised that she was going to leave. Somehow, he was convinced that if he let her get away, she wouldn't just be leaving him, but all of Atlas, just like she had left Sanctuary.

"Wait, Angel!" Rhys blurted, reaching out to grab her wrist.

"Rhys, I'm-"

"N-no, it's my fault. You surprised me. I didn't mean to…"

Rhys swallowed, he was not in any state to be having a heart to heart with someone.

"We need to think about this. I'm your boss and your commander, that's like twice the breach of conduct all at once."

Angel jerked her arm out of his grip with a frustrated huff.

"Rhys, you run an isolated compound in the middle of a huge desert. I hate to be the one to tell you this, but everyone is fucking each other. That's what people do."

Rhys winced. He Knew relationships between coworkers were common, but that didn't suddenly solve the power imbalance or the 'I have some of your father's memories, and he might still be living in my head' issue.

"We're both too drunk for this," Rhys muttered. He scrubbed his face with his hands and sat back in his seat.

"I want a date."

"Angel…"

"One date. I just want us to give it a shot. If it's too weird then fine, whatever, but I really feel like this is something… special."

Hearing those words, Rhys' heart skipped a beat. He hadn't thought that she might feel like that. He'd automatically assumed that she just wanted a make-out buddy to practice with.

Rhys needed time to think, but he also couldn't let Angel go without setting things right. The two conflicting needs butted heads, trapping him in a deadlock of indecision, and the worst part was that he was starting to realise that he had already fallen in love with Angel.

She was so pretty it was almost painful to look at her, especially now she was eating right and getting exercise. She expressed herself in so many wonderful and deceptive ways, from the tilts of her head to where she placed her hands. She had a sharp tongue, never took shit from anyone, and didn't hold anything back.

He'd always been prepared to give her anything she asked for, but he'd never imagined she'd want him.

The knowing smile building on Angel's lips told Rhys that she was reading into his stunned silence and drawing the correct conclusions.

"How about the day after tomorrow, just after Lunch?" Angel suggested.

"I have to work."

"No, you don't. You run this place, you can do whatever you want."

Rhys groaned and slipped back further in his seat. He knew he was fighting an uphill battle. He couldn't think straight, and only half of him was fully convinced he had cause to refuse her in the first place.

"Okay, we'll… try this out."

Angel's grateful and excited smile in response was enough to crank Rhys' body temperature up a few degrees. She was so cute, there should be a law regulating her smile as an opioid.

"Yes! -And I already have an epic idea too," Angel's fingers closed around his wrist and she leant in to whisper in his ear. "Meet me in the drill hall. It'll be empty at that time of day."

She bobbed back to standing. Rhys almost asked why there, but he could tell she wanted to keep it a surprise.

"I should get to bed then..."

"Yeah. If I know Norfolk, you won't get to sleep in tomorrow, no matter how much you had to drink."

Angel nodded and shrugged her shoulders.

"See you soon."

"You too."

Rhys watched her weave her way through the tables and out into the artificially lit courtyard. He ran a hand over the back of his neck, trying to rub away the goose bumps that Angel had given him when she leant close to his ear.

After five minutes, he stood up. The bartender and the waitress both shared a relieved look and both wished him a good night as he passed by them.

* * *

 

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!"

Rhys threw himself into bed, bouncing his pillows half a foot in the air with his mattress belly-flopp.

He'd sobered up a bit in the last few hours and had a lot of time to think about things. Way too much time to think about things.

He shouldn't have agreed to it. He really, really, shouldn't have. It was only a date, sure, but he couldn't go through with it. He had no business doing anything with Angel that might lead somewhere sexual.

It was just wrong in so many ways. For starters, he had no idea how old she was. She couldn't be any older than 24, probably closer to 20 or 21, which was definitely outside of a 34-year-old CEO's socially acceptable dating pool.

Then there was the part about him being her commanding officer. Even though he would never use his power against her, his good intentions wouldn't make it less creepy. Angel was already on a promotion fast track because of her siren powers, and if word got out that they were dating, it was only a matter of time before she got accused of sleeping her way to the top.

Angel didn't need to deal with that, especially after getting ostracised out of Sanctuary. Her new life was supposed to be happy, and perfect. With a new family to support her and a new father to watch out for and protect her.

While he would never have been willing to admit it out loud, that's how Rhys had been seeing himself. Some part of him had been convinced he could take Jack's place in her life. That, given enough time, he could start to make up for the shitty deal fate had dealt her.

He was only a few months in, and he had already fucked it up. He'd crossed too many lines with her and she clearly didn't see him as a paternal figure anymore, if she ever had.

There was no other way to look at it. She wanted to get in his pants, and she had been perfectly prepared to climb into his lap in her attempt to seduce him.

He could picture it so clearly in his mind. Angel's perfect backside settled on his upper thighs. The neckline of her tank top showing off just enough cleavage to be distracting. The desperation in her every movement as she tried to overcome inexperience with desire alone.

Rhys groaned and rolled onto his back. He was doing it again. He was supposed to be convincing himself why this was wrong. He couldn't let his thoughts linger on how he'd gotten hard after only a few seconds staring into her eyes, or how soft Angel's lips had felt, or how hot she'd been between her legs, or what noises she might make if he had slipped a hand into her pants and-

He'd tell her tomorrow. He'd man the fuck up and tell her they couldn't do this. Even if it broke her heart. Even if she looked at him with her tear-filled blue eyes. Even though he knew she'd had too much pain in her life, and that he was only adding to it by rejecting the first advances she had ever gotten to make.

He had to. It was for her own good.

' _The fuck you will.'_

Rhys sat bolt upright, his heart hammering inside his chest.

"Jack!?" He stammered. He'd been so stuck inside his own thoughts he'd forgotten that third thing that made a romantic relationship with Angel such a bad idea.

' _I will_ _ **not**_ _lose her. I don't care what it takes. You keep her here, and you keep my baby_ _ **HAPPY!**_ _'_

Rhys scrambled backwards on his bed, pressing his shoulders up against the headboard. There was nothing he could do. There was nowhere he could run or hide.

"What! Jack, you… you can't be okay with this! You're inside me, or with me… if I… that means…"

Rhys heard Jack's furious growl bouncing around inside his head, drowning out all other thoughts.

' _That's awfully presumptuous of you, assuming_ _ **you**_ _know what_ _ **I'm**_ _okay with. That's the problem with you, Rhys, you go around mouthing off about things you have no fucking clue about!'_

A phantom force seized control of Rhys' arms and wrapped both of his hands around his throat.

' _Do you have_ _ **any**_ _idea how many people I killed for her? What I went through trying to keep her safe?! I don't give a single shit what it takes, anything is worth it for_ _ **her**_ _!'_

Rhys's head felt like it was splitting at the seams. His fingers tightened, crushing his windpipe.

' _Everything I worked for ended in miserable failure, but as long as my Angel is still alive, as long a she's_ _ **happy**_ _, then it was all worth it! Understand.'_

Rhys nodded, scared of using up the precious oxygen he had left in his lungs.

' _Good.'_

Rhys regained control of his hands, and he threw them as far away from his throat as they could go. He lay there, panting heavily, his chest and throat aching. He couldn't tell if it was over, if Jack had crawled back to whatever corner of his mind he was hiding in.

Ten long minutes passed, but nothing else happened. Rhys managed to regain part of his composure. He sat up and got out of bed, but there was nowhere he could go that Jack wouldn't be as well.

This was bad. This was so, so, so very bad.

' _Angel is 21, by the way.'_

Rhys froze mid step. Jack sounded calmer, but it was harder to tell when the voice was inside his own head and he was still panicking.

' _She's young, smart, and beautiful. You should be honoured a goddess like her wants to fuck you_.'

Rhys swallowed. Jack wasn't even wrong. Angel was a goddess. In her powers, her looks, and her temperament.

Rhys returned to his bed and sat down. It was nice thinking about her. Better than tying himself up in a knot about everything he had to worry about. He was stupid for pushing her away like he did. He should have pulled her in close and snuck a hand up between their bodies, under her bra.

Rhys moved one of his hands to rest on his knee, then on his lap. The next thing he knew he was leaning back in bed and he had pulled his boxers all the way off.

"Jack what are you doing?" Rhys breathed. He felt hot all over, and the all-consuming fear gripping him had lapsed.

' _Me? They're your hands, Princess, why don't you tell me what_ _ **you're**_ _doing.'_

Cold metal fingers wrapped around his cock. Rhys was already half hard, but he had no idea when or how that happened.

All Rhys knew is that he would do everything in his power to treat Angel like she deserved. Every inch of her body deserved worship.

He'd kneel before her, kiss her fingertips, then her wrists, work his way up to her shoulders and her collarbone.

Rhys stroked himself in long, lazy movements, losing himself in the fantasy. It didn't feel like he was completely in control of his actions, he could practically feel another hand guiding his.

"Jack…"

' _Focus, Rhysie, I'll show you what to do. At least one of us knows how to treat a woman.'_

Next her breasts, he'd spend a while there, teasing and fondling her until she was so wound up she'd beg for more. He wouldn't give in just yet, he'd kiss a path down her stomach, then move to her thighs and go back up.

Rhys' fingers tightened, and he picked up his pace.

Then after he'd kissed and nuzzled her upper thighs so much that she'd grabbed him by the hair, he'd lean in and taste her.

' _Use your fingers and your tongue. I'm told it feels_ _ **so**_ _much better if she has something to tighten around while you tease her clit.'_

"S-shit…"

Rhys had been so distracted by the fantasy, that he didn't realise he was getting close until he hit the edge. He shoved his left hand down over his mouth, biting down on his fingers to muffle a moan. The force that had been guiding him released and Rhys jerked his cybernetic hand back. He needed to get up and wash it before any of his… stuff, got into the joints.

' _Yeah, you're going to have to work on that lasting power. Cuz, that? -That was just embarrassing.'_

Rhys made it to the bathroom and turned on the water. He rinsed his hand off then bent down and splashed several handfuls of cold water over his face.

He caught his own eyes in the mirror as he finished. His yellow cybernetic eye glowed brightly in the dim light. He'd seen it a thousand times before, and he had never noticed how freaky it looked until now, or how much the colour reminded him of-

' _Rip it out. I_ _ **dare**_ _you.'_

Rhys grit his teeth. He searched the bathroom counter and found a pair of manicure scissors. The blades were less than an inch long and wickedly sharp. With a grunt of effort, Rhys snapped both halves apart and tossed half into the sink where It clattered against the bowl. He gripped the other half, his cybernetic fingers clenched tight enough to bend it.

He held it up at eye level, so close his vision blurred. The reflection in the mirror was clearer, he'd use that.

' _Go on. I'm_ _ **sure**_ _it will work this time.'_

Rhys' hand was trembling, he couldn't get the tiny point to line up with his iris. He knew he'd done this before, but apparently stabbing yourself in the eye wasn't something that got easier with practice.

He had to do it. Anything to be rid of Jack.

' _You know what I never got about you, kiddo? You can never decide how you feel about me. You ripped your own arm off trying to kill me, but when you started suspecting there were a few traces of your hero rattling around inside your noggin; you were perfectly happy to ignore the problem until we ended up right back here all over again.'_

Rhys gripped the edge of the sink. He couldn't listen to this. Jack would twist reality into any shape to make it fit his narrative. If Rhys stopped to listen, he would start believing what Jack said.

' _Just admit it. You missed me. You_ _ **liked**_ _thinking I was still in there somewhere."_

"F-fine. Maybe you're right, maybe I did like having you around, -But that's my problem. I am not going to let you use me to hurt Angel!"

Empty silence filled the bathroom. After suffering through two voices lashing out inside his head, the quiet felt eerie.

' _You… you really think_ _ **I**_ _want to hurt Angel? Haven't you heard a single thing I've been saying?'_

Rhys lowered his wrist, though he kept the implement clenched in his fingers. He met his own eyes in the mirror, the glow in his left eye had dimmed to a pale gold.

' _I would never hurt her. I love her. I've always loved her. You of all people should know that. Remember the feeling you got when you held her in your arms for the first time? Didn't you ever wonder where it came from?'_

"That…" Rhys trailed off. He recalled that moment as if it happened yesterday. The way his heart soared when he realised she was alive. It was just like when Sasha had almost perished in the battle with the traveller. An ecstatic relief that made you truly realise how much a person meant to you.

' _We both love her Rhys. We both want to keep her safe. -but If you break her heart, if you make her unhappy, she'll leave and be all alone on this awful planet.'_

Rhys closed his eyes and leant heavily against the sink. If he showed up in the ER with his implants ripped out, Angel would eventually find out about it. She'd want to know why he'd hurt himself. She was a smart girl, if she started looking for answers, she'd figure it out.

' _If she discovers what you've been hiding, she won't stick around to hear an apology.'_

"This… is the only way."

' _What she doesn't know won't hurt her.'_

"Y-yeah…"

Rhys gathered up both sides of the scissors and dumped them into the trash. His head was killing him. He couldn't keep this up any longer. He found his way back to bed, too exhausted to put his boxers back on or even pull the blankets over himself.


End file.
